Unit 2.2: Pastoralism and Logic of Mobility

Unit 2.2: Pastoralism and Logic of Mobility

Instructor: Prof. Abdelaziz Karamalla Gaiballa

In this Unit 2.2, we will start with sharing understanding of the Pastoralism and Logic of Mobility, its importance, problems and challenges and to create a sound understanding and clear picture of it. Let us review the following:

2.2.1 Understanding Mobility

What is mobility? Generally, in most context mobility and transhumance are used interchangeably, as both are indicating a practice in form of animals’ movement from one area to another, looking for better feeding resources and more suitable environment for livestock herding. Mobility is a matter of daily practice where social economic and political life is centered on it. Besides the physical movement of people and livestock over the landscape in search of water and pasture, pastoral mobility is also about crossing borders and exchanging knowledge (Timothy, 2014).

Mobility represents the backbone of the pastoralism practices, as it enable animals to use varied feed resources at different times, different sites and widening the capacity of the pastoralists to cope with different environmental and social settings.  It is facing numbers of challenges linked with conflicts and governance related issues. This situation remains as one of the pastoralism issues; on the other hand animal movement represents an environment friendly practice in favoring vegetation dynamic process and ecological balances. It constitutes the best mean of using resources and at the same time ensures the use of best feed, while conserving the resources through avoiding heavy utilization at one site.

Livestock mobility plays an important role in pastoralism as it enable communities to adapt to changing environmental conditions, find suitable pastures, and use available resources efficiently. It ensures food and livelihood security by allowing pastoralists to access resources and adapt to changing climatic conditions.

Mandatory Quiz:  [Click Here]

2.2.2 Logic of Mobility

The need for critical discussion and research about logic of mobility is important, this because mobility imply movement along wide areas representing not only mobile livestock but also a mobile land use system as well.

Among the factors that contribute to the adaptation capacity of mobile pastoralists, perhaps the most important ones are mobility and communal land management. Both elements allow pastoralists to have a large pool of natural resources, not restricted to private lands. Grazing resources can, therefore, be optimized both in terms of quality (accessing the best available fodder) and quantity (no grass will be left without been grazed because of insufficient animals e.g. in an extraordinarily productive year). In the context of climate change, the ability to cope with changes is easily derived from these strategies (Pablo, 2018).

Mobile pastoralism is one of the most efficient livestock farming systems in terms of natural resource use and land management. It is also a highly sustainable and economically rational system that makes most of the Earth’s less productive areas, unsuitable for crop production. It has the ability to provide the highest levels of animal welfare among livestock husbandry. Whereas intensive systems have been heavily criticized for ethical concerns, pastoralist systems cannot be viewed in the same light. Animals in extensive husbandry techniques enjoy the open pasture, exercise and natural food, and this makes them much less prone to disease. Additionally, in terms of productivity, they benefit from lower veterinary treatments, availability of shadowed shelters and variety in food choice. Livestock intensification implies an increase in animal densities that also has a direct impact in animal welfare. It is central to pastoralists’ identity and relationships; it draws on deep local and indigenous knowledge. It is vital for survival, especially in the event of a drought or other catastrophe. It avoids soil, water and environmental degradation and controls pollution and pests by rotating settlements and grazing areas. It co-exists harmoniously with local fauna and flora, so is a resilient alternative to cope with the vagaries of climate change (IFAD, 2017).

The success of pastoralist livestock production depends on mobility in order to ensure the timely and reliable access to pastures when nutrients peak. This justifies why pastoralists depend on extensive herding.

Mobility as a livestock movement contributes to maintenance of ecological functions, where transhumant routes can be acknowledged as ecological corridors, along which millions of seeds and insects are moved via the animals’ coats and fleeces, hooves and droppings. A herd of 1000 transhumant sheep in Spain transports as many as 200 million ingested seeds along drove roads during their 1,500 km long migration with a mean dispersal distance of 40 km – other means of dispersal such as seeds attached to the fleece, or seed spitting should be added to this figure. These animal movements interconnect valuable habitats and protected areas, avoiding their isolation and fragmentation, which are amongst the most serious threats these areas face today (2015).

According to Scoones (1995), efficient use of natural resources requires pastoral mobility patterns along different scales, depending on the spatial and temporal variability of the resources and adaptation to other elements of the production system. This depends on the degree of variability; pastoral mobility patterns can be more or less regular. In highly variable and unpredictable ecosystems, large-scale pastoral mobility is a common phenomenon. In these areas cultivation is rare and the population very mobile. In less variable and unpredictable ecosystems, where cultivation is more common (often occurring as agro-pastoralism) and the population more sedentary, variability in resources can often be met by small-scale migration to local key resources and harvested fields, or by irregular large-scale migrations (Scoones, 1995).

Number of scientific evidences shows the importance of pastoral mobility in maintaining the ecological balance of the rangelands through livestock to move freely across landscapes. Mobility also ensures the sustainable utilization of resources and the preservation of fragile ecosystems. It ensures food and livelihood security by allowing pastoralists to access resources and adapt to changing climatic conditions (Scoones, 1995).

Cross boarder grazing is among important issues linked with mobility and that require good planning and coordination between neighboring countries. The planning and implementation of cross-border initiatives as part of a livelihoods based response to drought remain largely unexplored in both policy and practice. Given the regional nature of pastoralism and the challenges this poses, there is an urgent need to develop a better understanding of cross-border dynamics and take full advantage of their potential to contribute to a strategic and more appropriate livelihoods based response to drought in the Horn of Africa Drylands. This support needs to be premised on the recognition that the existence of cross-border linkages makes bordering communities likely to be exposed to similar risks and have interdependent or correlated vulnerabilities.

Analysis Exercise: Case Study 2

Download PDF file of the Case Study from Sahelian Senegal in Africa.
https://pure.au.dk/ws/files/45143731/THE_GEOGRAPHICAL_JOURNAL_understanding_pastoral_mobility.pdf/1000 

Instruction for Instructor

Essential Readings:

Adriansen, H. (2018). Understanding pastoral mobility: The case of Senegalese

Fulani: The Geographical Journal, 174(3): 207–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4959.2008.00278.x

Hussein M., Babekir A. and Ahmed, G. (2024). Pastoralist mobility along the

Sudanese Ethiopian borderland: Towards cooperative land management. Nomadic Peoples, 28: 19–40. https://doi.org/10.3828/whpnp.63837646691042

Manzano-Baena, P. and Salguero-Herrera, C. (2018). Mobile pastoralism in the

Mediterranean: Arguments and evidence for policy reform and its role in combating climate change. https://trashumanciaynaturaleza.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MobilePastoralismMotherDocument.

Scoones, I. (1995). New directions in pastoral development in Africa: Living with

uncertainty. Exeter, UK: Intermediate Technology Publications, p.1–36 https://www.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/7317IIED.pdf

Further Readings:

Pastoralists Knowledge Hub (2023). The Role of Livestock Mobility in Supporting

Communities, Adapting to Climate Change, and Fostering Resilient Ecosystems. Pastoralists Knowledge Hub, FAO, Rome. https://www.fao.org/pastoralist-knowledge-hub/news/detail/en/c/1643395/

Moss, T. (2014). Spatiality of the Commons. International Journal of the Commons,

8(2): 457-471. https://thecommonsjournal.org/articles/10.18352/ijc.556

Pastoralists Knowledge Hub (2023). The Role of Livestock Mobility in Supporting

Communities, Adapting to Climate Change, and Fostering Resilient Ecosystems. Pastoralists Knowledge Hub, FAO, Rome. https://www.fao.org/pastoralist-knowledge-hub/news/detail/en/c/1643395/

Manzano, P. (2015). Pastoralist Ownership of Rural Transformation: The adequate

path to change. Development, 58(2/3). http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41301-016-0012-6

IFAD (2017). Pastoralism, the backbone of the world’s drylands VSF International,

in collaboration with AVSF, VSF Belgium. VSF Germany, SIVtro - VSF Italia and VSF Justicia Alimentaria Global. https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1028231/

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